“Yeah, there’s no real following here,” Rios told the Sun-Times during the White Sox four-day visit to Toronto that wrapped up Thursday. “There’s a small group of diehards, but it’s hockey, hockey, hockey. It’s gotten sad here. They just don’t really care.”

first of all... i don't watch baseball but why does the league so corrupted... there is no capspace..whatsoever ...how does 30 teams (i assume there are 30 teams) be equally competitive. Boston and Yankee are cash cows when getting good players........

I read somewhere Boston and Yankee have around 300 million dollar in contracts and Toronto is around 65 million? wow.

My thought was why have 8 teams in the playoffs if u can get 16 teams to the playoffs...therefore increasing fans and giving fans hope that their team will be in the playoffs due to better opportunity

There is no way Toronto can be competitive against the two power house in their division. Just wondering what is toronto total contracts in 1992 playoff?

Man-O-Man ... the Jays pitchers have thrown a few gems this season so far eh? Cecil looked amazing last night in Cleveland. And nice the see the boys still knockin' them out of the park too. Love the strong start with hitting the long ball. If only our middle relief could sharpen up.

Umm ... so yeah ... how about them Blue Jays? I'm still waiting for them to fall flat on their faces, but I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised with them so far. Stellar starting pitching for the most part which we again saw this weekend highlighted by another superb outing by Romero.

Oh ya, did these also "juice up" this past off-season? We have to be on record pace for shattering the most team HR's record. WOW.

No pressure, Doc. That's what it boils down to it. No one expects them to come out and win, so they're loosey-goosey. Anthopoulous has done a great job with the FA signings this year. Who knows, they could easily flip guys like Bautista and Gonzalez for prospects. Not a bad situation.

Keep a little faith Mango Kid! Everyone thought the Rays were gonna fall off a few seasons ago and they took their season all the way to the World Series, so you never know.

For the past few seasons its either been all hitting and no pitching or all pitching and no hitting for the Jays. This year they've got both going but they've gotta keep it up. I'm pretty sure last season they were in 1st until late May, then fell off the face of the earth.

It is promising to see all the great pitching though. Marcum could have 6 wins by now if he had some run support in his starts!

11. Toronto Blue Jays
The Pick: Deck McGuire, RHP, Georgia Tech
The Buzz: McGuire was one of the safest arms in the draft. He was the ace for the Yellow Jackets and could be the first player in the draft to make the major leagues. A winner that knows how to pitch, he doesn't overwhelm with one pitch but throws lots of strikes.

34. Toronto Blue Jays - For Marco Scutaro
The Pick: Aaron Sanchez, RHP, Barstow (CA) High
The Buzz: The Oregon commit was the No. 14 high school player entering the draft. Still growing into his body may have cost him a few mph with scouts' guns. His long legs and lean frame project well, and more power on his pitches should come over time.

TORONTO -- For the Blue Jays, Tuesday's signings of Venezuelan prospects Adonis Cardona and Gabriel Cenas served as a statement to the rest of the baseball. Toronto is becoming a force in the international marketplace.

"It's a great time to be a Toronto Blue Jay," said Marco Paddy, the club's director of Latin America operations. "We're going to be everywhere and we're going see whoever we've got to see and we're going to evaluate the players and try to sign every one that we think is going to help us win a championship.

"We're covering every inch of the world to try to get the best players."

Paddy spoke via conference call from the Netherlands, where he is currently monitoring a tournament that includes teams from the United States, Europe and Cuba, among other places. Next on his itinerary are trips to Aruba, Canada and possibly a third stop in Japan to see more players.

Since Alex Anthopoulos took over as the Blue Jays general manager at the end of last season, the organization has taken a more aggressive approach to scouting and player development. Budgets were increased, a surplus of scouts were hired and every highly-touted prospect suddenly became a realistic target.

"We're certainly energized since he's been here and we're very aggressive," Paddy said. "We're not going to get in a race that we're not willing to win."

That includes players such as Cardona (a right-handed pitcher) and Cenas (a third baseman) -- both 16 years old who became eligible for signing on July 2. Anthopoulos confirmed that Cardona received a $2.8 million signing bonus -- the largest given to a Latin American amateur player in club history -- while Cenas garnered $700,000.

Anyone got a viewpoint on the trade that AA made yesterday - Wallace for Gose?

AT first glance, it looks like a horrible deal for the Jays - a guy who's thought of to be a top 25 prospect and a good hitter for an unproven 19-year old outfielder at Single-A. But as you look deeper into the stats - Wallace was doing okay at Triple-A Las Vegas in the Pacific Coast League - which is known as a hitter's league, and Vegas being known as a hitter's paradise, Wallace didn't exactly set the world on fire, which raised some questions. There was also a lot of questions about his conditioning and the lackthereof. In addition, the Jays have a lot of guys at the LF/DH/1B position right now.
Gose, only 19, stole close to 80 bases last season, has a lot of speed to burn, a cannon for an arm and has a real swagger to him. A lot of people compare him to Carl Crawford. He's definitely got a high ceiling. Maybe higher than that of Wallace's. Sometime you gotta take a chance. I think this move will pay off dividends in a couple of years.

Yeah, that's exactly what AA was saying, if he can improve his hitting a little, I don't really mind about the power.. He'll be able to steal a ton of bases, just has to work on what pitches to steal on, imo. He's been caught 27 times this season, with 37 steals up to now.. Not the greatest percentage, but I'm pretty sure he just has to make a few adjustments and he'll be fine. He's still really young, and with Lind being able to play some first next season, hopefully he can put up some decent numbers and not commit too many errors, and we can forget about Wallace.

They came back pretty quickly with acquiring another first baseman for depth in Mike Jacobs, 32 homers and 93 RBI's in 08', not so bad.. Hasn't done so well the last couple years, but we're known for putting hitters back on the right track. It's for depth, this wasn't a bad move either (though he seems to be a lot like Lyle Overbay).. Even if he doesn't work out.

JP Arencibia

Have to put this here, for posterity’s sake if nothing else: JP Arencibia, a 24 year old catcher, drafted in the first round of the 2007 draft made his Toronto Blue Jays debut today, several weeks earlier than expected due to an injury to catcher John Buck.

Unless a trip to Vegas included taking in a game of the Blue Jays Triple-A team there, fans and followers of the team have only been able to read about Arencibia’s exploits, where he’s been tearing it up of late (especially), hitting 31 home runs to go along with a .303 batting average.

His much anticipated first at-bat, coming in the second inning, was one that’ll be long remembered. The first pitch delivered by Tampa Bay Rays James Sheilds was a 93-mph fastball and Arencibia wasted no time, crushing it over the left-field wall for a rare first-at-bat, first-pitch in the Majors, Home Run.

He wasn’t done. By the time the dust had settled and the buzzing crowd left Rogers Centre after watching the Blue Jays paste the Rays, 17 - 11, JP Arencibia finished the day going 4 for 5, hitting a SECOND home run, as well as a double and a single.

Nah.. He's always had the power, he's a big guy. It's all in the mechanics of his swing. Everyone has up and down years, and this is just a break out one for Bautista.. He has a home run swing, mixed with the fact that he's seeing the ball well.. Don't see what's so surprising about it.

This is kinda like saying Aaron Hill was on steroids last year, he hit more home runs last year than his whole career up to that season, combined. If you followed their careers though, and saw what they've done, and have been able to do.. It's not such a surprise.

It's because Bautista has actually received some PT this year. Not to mention that Cito and Brantley cleaned up some of his mechanics at the plate. JB has some real torque in that swing. The bat just whips through the ball.

A shame that the Jays have decided to call it a season for Morrow after his next start. While I understand why, it would of been nice to see him pad his stats a little bit more. Especially his K's/game average. WOW.